Pages

Thursday, June 2, 2016

Europe: The EU is such an honest broker

The European Union sent a very harsh message to Israel a few days ago
regarding the demolition of Palestinian structures in Area C of the West
Bank, including some that were built with EU funding. In a
meeting with the coordinator of activities in the territories Maj. Gen.
Yoav Mordechai last week, the EU ambassador to Israel, Lars Faaborg
Andersen, warned that a continuation of the massive demolition of
Palestinian homes in the West Bank is liable to harm relations between
the EU and Israel.

According to international law, Israel has full civil and security
control of Area C. In legal terms, this is not under dispute. If you
want to build there, there is only a single authority through which you
must apply for permits: the IDF. Everything else that is built is
illegal, by definition.

The EU is complaining that Israel is upholding the law.

Now, there is nothing wrong with the EU complaining that Israel is
applying the law unevenly, or for them to use diplomacy to loosen up the
permit program. But Israel is obligated to enforce its laws on building
in Area C.

When the EU says that Israel must allow illegal building, they are
saying that the Oslo accords and the accords that followed - the only
documents in international law that determine who is responsible for the
West Bank's day to day affairs - are nul and void. Moreover, they are
saying that instead of the final border being determined by
negotiations, which is the official position of the Western world, they
are saying that much of Area C is already Palestinian territory before
the fact.

This goes hand in hand with the French initiative this week. The EU is
trying to force a solution on Israel and is more than willing to flout
international law to do so.